ACT schools examine 'all options' to get more teachers amid workforce shortage

An influx of graduate teachers is also set to bolster the teaching workforce as public and Catholic education systems are redoubling recruitment efforts to attract local, overseas and interstate teachers.

Schools across the territory battled to keep the doors open in Term 2 as many staff were sick or at home caring for their children, with not enough relief teachers available to fill in.

Teachers must be registered with the Teacher Quality Institute to be allowed to work in ACT schools but some casual teachers find the required hours of professional learning too onerous.

An Education Directorate spokesman said the institute was actively reviewing the regulatory requirements for teachers in the ACT to ensure they support quality teachers and do not detract from teachers seeking or maintaining professional registration.

The directorate is also reviewing its support for schools ahead of Term 3, including potential administrative changes and recruiting more relief teachers.

"The Education Directorate currently has an open recruitment round. We are hoping to be able to allocate teachers hired through this process directly to schools with the greatest need," the spokesman said.

"We are also working through processes to continue offering permanent roles to eligible temporary and casual teachers."

Staff working in the directorate's education support office were also sent to ACT public schools facing severe staff shortages in Term 2.

Catholic Education director for Canberra and Goulburn Ross Fox said the Catholic system had a national and international recruitment campaign underway to fill workforce gaps.

"All systems have to look at all options and so if there are people in New Zealand, Canada or elsewhere who are interested in the move to Australia and it involves us supporting visas, then we'll be doing that," Mr Fox said.

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Catholic Education will continue to encourage retired teachers, people who have done casual work in the past and final-year teaching students to register for relief teaching in schools, Mr Fox said.

Australian Education Union ACT branch president Angela Burroughs said the people who were part of the central relief teacher pool at the beginning of the year had mostly been offered contracts by schools.

"The pool is so small now that it's been discontinued," she said.

Ms Burroughs said casual teachers sometimes found it difficult to achieve the 20 hours of professional learning required to be registered unless they were invited to join a particular school's program. Even if they were invited to join, they may not be paid for their time like permanent staff.

"The union is interested in talking to the employer about the possibility of making some of these regulatory hurdles a bit easier for relief staff in particular, because they're sort of the big element of our staffing model that's suddenly become broken," she said.

Students who are in their final semester of a teaching degree are able to get a permit to teach after their final practical placement.

University of Canberra executive dean of education Professor Barney Dalgarno said one cohort of students graduated in the middle of the year and will be able to start working now while the following final-year cohort will be able to start teaching from Term 4.

"We do have a critical shortage at the moment and obviously COVID is not helping at all. So we'll keep doing our bit to get our students through and out into the workforce," Professor Dalgarno said.

He said high employment had led to fewer enrolments in higher education this year.

"We're keeping on doing our best to promote the teaching profession and encourage as many people as we can to enter our courses," he said.

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